24 Chapter
Alexa
I arrived in Rio de Janeiro three hours ago. Mr. Holmes mailed me the plane tickets. I’m in awe of this wonderful, beautiful, magnificent city. Words are not enough to express all its beauty. I don’t regret at all that I agreed to this adventure.
Rio de Janeiro is a city of contrasts which doesn’t leave anyone indifferent who has been here, including me. I wish I had been to the carnival for which the city is famous. Millions of tourists from all over the world come to see the spectacle. On the way from the airport to the hotel I met two big shopping complexes – “Barra-Shopping” and “Rio-Sul”, where you can find literally everything – from small gifts, to outfits from Versace and Gucci. But, as a rule, tourists bypass them, because this city is visited mainly for the cheap jewelry, which is better to buy in specialized jewelry stores such as “N. Stern” and “Amsterdam Sauer”. I didn’t miss this opportunity, and even though I didn’t take much money with me, I bought myself a couple of Versace dresses and gold earrings at Amsterdam Sauer.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the cab driver, who fortunately for me spoke English, said to me.
“That’s it, we can go now,” I said as I put the bags on the back seat and sat down in the front.
“Your hotel is the Hilton Barra Rio de Janeiro, one of the best in Rio, ” he said, as I showed him in the catalog.
“Thank you,” I said, and I was proud that my secret customer had spared no expense on my vacation.
“We’re here” , said Max and opened the door for me outside. He helped me out and handed me my shopping bags.
“Thank you,” I thanked him, and paid.
I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I woke up, I was handcuffed to the bed.
The man was sitting on a chair with his back to me.
“Take these cuffs off me, you bastard! ” I began to shout. But he didn’t answer anything, just came up to me, taking my leg in his hand and gently running his fingers over it, still wearing his mask. He was well prepared, even the mask. I realized only now.
” Do you want me to take it off?” he asked me, already kissing my leg with his lips.
“Yes, show me your face. Although I have a suspicion that you are Arthur,” I said, but the man moved away from me and took off his mask.
“I’ve had enough of him,” he yelled, and I recognized him as Michael.
“Michael?” I was surprised.
“Yes, honey. And you wanted Arthur in my place, I take it.”
Michael. I can’t believe it. My pawn in everything, now she’s decided to play me.
Wow! I was standing in front of the multi-story building of the five-star Hilton Barra Rio de Janeiro.
“Ola, senhorita,” the receptionist greeted me as I approached reception. A middle-aged woman, not young. With bright makeup. I thought the receptionist would have a more reserved look, but I was wrong. A white blouse with a deep cleavage and a skirt that was tight around every part of her body. When she bent over, I thought she was going to be wearing it.
Something I understood in Spanish, and it was a greeting.
“Ola,” I said hello in response.
-“Bem-vindo a nossa cidade. Espero voce temos que gostar. O pessoal do hotel ira fazer tudo o que e necessario. Desejamos-lhe uma estadia agradavel no nosso hotel,” and then I realized I didn’t understand anything and decided to ask her in my language.
“Do you speak English? I don’t understand you at all. What was that again?”
“Yes, I speak English. I wish you a good holiday and I am delighted that you have come to our wonderful city,” she replied, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Here is your key,” she said and handed me the key to my room.
” It’s a double suite with a gorgeous view. It’s on the tenth floor. The man who paid for it will join you tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” I thanked him, and then I pressed the elevator button and waited for him. It arrived in just a minute, I got in and went to the floor I wanted.
I’m starting to like this more and more,” I said to myself as I walked through the hotel lobby to my room.
The room was gorgeous. I threw the bags on the huge bed and went to see the bathroom, where I was hoping to see a Jacuzzi. Yay! It’s there, which means that after a rough flight, I can finally relax. Then I put on my new dress and go down to the restaurant to have some Brazilian food, I hope I like it.
Arthur
After arriving at my house, I decided to call Alex after all, because whatever the case, I want to talk to her and say everything I think about her and get my keys.
I dialed her number a few times, but the cell phone operator kept telling me that the subscriber was out of range. I wonder where she had gone that her network wasn’t picking up. – I thought and sat down on my couch.
How is Blanche? She still hasn’t called me today, after what happened between us. Sure, I wasn’t attracted to her, but not like I was attracted to Alexa.
Before I could finish my thought, there was a knock on my door.
“Coming,” I shouted and walked over to open the doors. In front of me stood Blanche. She was dressed in a short turquoise dress and sandals with little stilettos.
” Hello, Arthur. May I come in?” I smiled sweetly.
“Of course, come in,” he answered and took her by the hand and led her into the apartment.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.
“I’ve been thinking…”
“Maybe we could still be friends without privileges. You’re a very good man, Arthur. And I don’t want to lose you.”
Her words surprised me. I hadn’t minded her first offer at all, but she’d played it against me. Maybe I just took a long time to think about it.
“Blanche, I will be very happy to be friends with you. I want to ask you something, have a seat on the couch,” I offered to sit down.
“Yes, I’m listening to you carefully,” she answered and looked at me.
“How long have you known Michael?”
“Why are you so interested in knowing him?” I asked suspiciously, wondering. Clearly, she wasn’t expecting such a question.
” It’s kind of like we’re together,” I lied.
“Yeah? Well, I thought we weren’t really anything,” she said.
“You were wrong. I just needed some time to figure things out,” I answered her with a little bit of a twist.
“Is that the only reason? Arthur, I’m not stupid. If you’re worried about me sleeping with Michael and cheating on you, you’re doing it wrong. He loves your sister, Emma. He and I had a no-strings-attached relationship over five years ago, before Michael met Emma. I don’t break up other people’s families,” she said, and it was obvious she was really hurt.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I said, and pulled her tighter against me so I could hug her.
“I’ve already forgiven you,” she replied, and then pulled away from me with a kiss on her cheek.
She took out the bag of white powder again and showed it to me.
“Do you want some?”
“Blanche, are you doing it again? ” I didn’t like her addiction to cocaine at all.
“Arthur, don’t be a drag. It’s the perfect way to relax. You don’t know what’s gonna happen to you tomorrow, do you? What if you get hit by a car just walking down the sidewalk? What would you do if you knew you only had one day to live?”
I was silent, I didn’t understand why she was telling me all this now?
“That’s right, you would have gone off like you wanted to. Doing reckless things, doing drugs, having sex with anyone you liked.”
“Blanche, are you in trouble?” Asked her, but she answered cheerfully.
“Yes, my biggest problem is you. You’re such a good boy. But maybe it’s time to stop being one, because everything is getting away from you. When you look back, your youth is gone. So it’s all or nothing,” she said, and then she dumped the contents of the bag on the table.
“It’s up to you,” she turned to me, trying to get me to do what she liked.
Alexa
After I took a bath and ate dinner, I decided to walk around the city for a while and explore it after all.
The city is quite bright and beautiful, but like all big tourist cities, it has its downsides – areas of terrible poverty are adjacent to posh high-rise buildings where apartments cost millions of dollars. The city with a high crime, which focuses mainly on the drug trade. Like all crime movies, this is the place that prefers to be filmed.
I walked just a little bit, but it was enough for me to realize that a pretty girl alone should not walk the streets of Rio. All the men looked at me as a desired prey, and this despite the fact that I dressed very modestly – a long pink sundress to the knees with straps with a small neckline and low-waisted ballet shoes.
I would ask my secret admirer to walk with me and be sure to ask him a question:
“Why Rio de Janeiro?”
I hope he’ll tell me the truth,” I thought, and started to walk back to the hotel. When I got up and went to my room, I felt someone grab me and press a rag of chloroform to my mouth and nose, I didn’t even have time to scream.
I fell to the floor, afraid I would lose consciousness. I couldn’t see his face because the room was dark. Darkness!!! Again,” I thought, and I already guessed that it could only be Arthur. But, hadn’t his games gone too far?”
“Who are you?” I started to ask, since I wasn’t quite sure, but his hands squeezed mine even harder and slowly moved to my throat.
“Silence!” Threatened me.
“Do you want money? Can I pay you well if you let me go?”
“Don’t need anything, you’ll soon be asleep,” I answered in a voice that wasn’t quite natural, and I could already feel my consciousness beginning to leave me and my body beginning to relax.
I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I woke up, I was handcuffed to the bed.
The man was sitting on a chair with his back to me.
“Take these cuffs off me, you bastard!” I began to shout. But he didn’t answer anything, just came up to me, taking my leg in his hand and gently running his fingers over it, still wearing his mask. He was well prepared, even the mask,” I realized only now.
“Do you want me to take it off?” he asked me, already kissing my leg with his lips.
“Yes, show me your face. Although I have a suspicion that you are Arthur,” I said, but the man moved away from me and took off his mask.
” I’ve had enough of him,” he yelled, and I recognized him as Michael.
“Michael?” I was surprised.
“Yes, honey. And you wanted Arthur in my place, I take it.”
Michael. I can’t believe it. My pawn in everything, now she’s decided to play me.
“Michael, uncuff me, be an obedient boy, then I’ll be a bad girl to you,” I began to ask him seductively, running one leg up and down the other.
“Now,” he answered, and taking the key out of his pants, he unfastened the handcuffs.
– You surprise me.
“I wanted to surprise you, and I hope I succeeded,” he answered, grabbing me abruptly and pulling me against him.
” It worked,” I agreed, kissing him on the cheek, then pulling away.
” Then why are you still thinking about Arthur?”
“You imagined it.”
“Alexa, you know what it took for me to pull all this off.”
“You’re very clever, I didn’t expect that from you. To tell you the truth, I was a little scared.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you. You better tell me, what are we gonna do next? You know I want to be with you madly, I even organized this meeting. I love you. Arthur told me that he fucked you, and I suspect it happened more than once. Why do you let him near you and not let me?”
Again he goes on and on about his love for me, again he asks me stupid questions.
” Michael, I appreciate everything, but you know you should finish what you started first, and then we’ll be together,” I answered him, but as usual deceived him.
“I understand, and I’m willing to wait,” but I didn’t want to listen and walked away from him.
“How did it go?” I started to ask him, while I poured the white wine into my glass.
“I did everything you told me to do. I made a duplicate of Arthur’s keys, had Blanche pump him up and get him drunk. Then I went to his house and,” he hesitated.
“Michael, go on. Well!”
” I fucked her and killed her. Good thing she was high and didn’t feel a thing.”
“And” I went on to find out.
“Did it like in your novel, then put the bloody knife in Arthur’s hands. He never woke up.”
“That’s great. Everything’s going according to plan.”
-“Alexa, why did you do that? First you fuck him, then you set him up, I don’t understand. The fact that Blanche was terminally ill and no one knew about it but me, that alone justifies what I did. I just helped her get out of this life early without suffering.”
– Michael, this is my own personal vendetta, you wouldn’t understand,” I tried to convince him to back off.
“Okay. ”
“No one will think anything of you, don’t worry about it,” I assured him and stroked his head with my hand. I could see how much he was worried.
“I understand, Alexa, but I can’t hold back anymore,” I didn’t want to say no, because there was so much at stake right now. That’s why I said yes. He deserved it.
“Okay, Michael, I’ll be yours tonight,” I sat down on top of him and rubbed my groin.
– I’m glad I did, because I deserved it, and he immediately plopped me down on the bed.
“Of course,” I agreed, and kissed him passionately. He hovered over me, his hands gently caressing my skin and his lips passionately kissing mine. Michael had been after me for a long time. We’d known each other before he’d met Emma. But Arthur had no idea. After all, Michael lived in another city, Houston, where my parents had moved.
He also wanted to be closer to me and also moved to live in New York.
His meeting with Emma was also designed by me. I mean, what’s it like to know that your sister loves a man who’s crazy about his girlfriend? It was originally thought out by me. She didn’t like me right away. I guess the girl had good instincts. Michael wrote and called me all the time, he wanted me to be his mistress. One day, he made an appointment for me to meet him and he started hitting on me and Emma and Arthur’s mother saw the whole thing. She told me to stop talking to Arthur and to stop seducing Emma’s husband. And Michael warned me that if she ever saw him with me again, she would tell Emma everything. In the meantime, she wouldn’t traumatize her daughter, who was already seven months pregnant.
We didn’t see or talk to Michael anymore, but I didn’t want to lose Arthur, so I kept in touch with him. When he went away for extended periods of time, I found someone to spend time with.
Friends with me? Did he seriously think I was friends with him? He shouldn’t have. He was very stupid and naive, just as he is now.
Michael had already pulled my dress down and was getting close to my panties, and I kept thinking about what a bitch I was.
“Fuck me, Michael,” were the words he longed to hear me say.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do right now,” he answered, getting rid of all the extra stuff and entering me sharply. No foreplay like he had with Arthur. Hard, rough sex.
“Michael, deeper, I want all of you,” I screamed, trying to pretend to enjoy it and not offend him. For now, one wrong word from him and I would fall into the trap I’d set for Arthur. Our pasts were a mess to us.